1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle seat provided with heating portion (i.e., a heater device) that warms an occupant.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-220399 (JP 2008-220399 A) describes a vehicle seat provided with heating means. In the vehicle seat described in JP 2008-220399 A, control is performed to increase an amount of heat output from the heating means when a degree of contact between an occupant and a seat decreases, and decrease the amount of heat output from the heating means when the degree of contact increases. Performing control in this way makes it possible to give the occupant a uniform sense of warmth.
However, with the vehicle seat described in JP 2008-220399 A, when the degree of contact between the occupant and the seat decreases, it is not possible to give the occupant a uniform sense of warmth unless the amount of heat output from the heating means is significantly increased. For example, when the occupant is separated from the seat, heat output from the heating means is no longer able to be applied directly to the occupant (i.e., heat can only transferred through air or the like). Therefore, energy efficiency will be poor unless the heating means significantly increases the amount of heat.